This invention relates to a downpipe connector system.
In many countries and especially in Mexico and the southern parts of the United States of America, homes and other buildings are sometimes constructed with flat composite and gravel roofs. This style of roof is sometimes called a Santa Fe style.
Rainwater from these flat roofs of Santa Fe style houses is conveyed to the ground via canales. In older style buildings, logs project outwardly from outside walls of the building and have the appearance as being part of the support structure of the building. They are in fact short lengths of tree logs and have a channel formed in an upwardly facing part of the log and extend along the log to form a crude gutter along which water from the roof may be conveyed. These logs are fitted flush with the inside of the parapet wall with the top of the canales flush or slightly lower than the flat roof surface.
Rain which falls onto the roof is directed from the flat roof to the canales and flows along the channels formed in the canales and is directed away from the building and falls onto the ground. In this way, water is able to drain from the roof and falls onto the ground and away from the foundations of the building.
New Santa Fe style homes are now no longer made from mud brick but are constructed of timber and stucco to give the building the appearance of a traditional Santa Fe style. Canales are typically constructed from straight sawn timber with a channel lined with aluminium and have a flat base of a width of about 8 inches (200 m). Once again rainwater, when it exits the canale, normally drops onto the ground. The ground may be prepared for better drainage with aggregate or aggregate placed over a grided drain.
There is now a need to harvest water from roofs of this type and this was not previously possible.